One Two Three – Book Review

Author: Laurie Frankel

Genre: Women’s Fiction

Publisher: Henry Holt & Company/Macmillan Audio

Publication Date: June 8, 2021

Book Description: In a town where nothing ever changes, suddenly everything does…

Everyone knows everyone in the tiny town of Bourne, but the Mitchell triplets are especially beloved. Mirabel is the smartest person anyone knows, and no one doubts it just because she can’t speak. Monday is the town’s purveyor of books now that the library’s closed—tell her the book you think you want, and she’ll pull the one you actually do from the microwave or her sock drawer. Mab’s job is hardest of all: get good grades, get into college, get out of Bourne.

For a few weeks seventeen years ago, Bourne was national news when its water turned green. The girls have come of age watching their mother’s endless fight for justice. But just when it seems life might go on the same forever, the first moving truck anyone’s seen in years pulls up and unloads new residents and old secrets. Soon, the Mitchell sisters are taking on a system stacked against them and uncovering mysteries buried longer than they’ve been alive. Because it’s hard to let go of the past when the past won’t let go of you.

Three unforgettable narrators join together here to tell a spellbinding story with wit, wonder, and deep affection. As she did in This Is How It Always Is, Laurie Frankel has written a laugh-out-loud-on-one-page-grab-a-tissue-the-next novel, as only she can, about how expanding our notions of normal makes the world a better place for everyone and how when days are darkest, it’s our daughters who will save us all.

Rating: 4 Stars

Review: Mab, Monday and Mirabel are triplets that live in the town of Bourne. Prior to their births, their town was a part of scandal when their water turned green caused by a chemical plant. Many people of the town suffered the consequences. Some have died, including the triplet’s father. There is a lot of issues that the town suffered from, including physical and learning disabilities for the kids that were born during that time.

Mab, is your “typical” teenager, in the A Track in School. Monday, in the B-Track likes anything yellow and has become the librarian of the town when the town library closes down. Mirabel, is a genius, but is in a wheelchair and cannot speak unless using a machine.

With their mother, they have been fighting the owners of the manufacturing plant to do what is right and to ensure they never show their faces again. When River Templeton shows up to the high school, it does not take long for the town to figure out, the people that harmed them the most are back and ready to reopen the defunct facility.

Frankel tells the story from rotating points of view from the three sisters, nicknamed, One, Two and Three. She gives us a story of a town and family reeling from this tragedy that occurred 17 years prior and the difficult choices people have to make.

I really liked this story, it was very intriguing, but also Frankel just wrote beautiful prose from the voices of three 16 years old. This book has a little bit of everything for everyone, that will keep you wanting more until the very last page.

Thank you NetGalley, Henry Holt and Macmillan Audio for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.